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The Ataris at the Camel, 10/3/12

While many of you were watching the debates last night, I was doing something way more productive and much more entertaining – seeing The Ataris, one of my favorite pop punk bands from the early 2000s perform a kickass show at the Camel.

Even though this show seemed to have come out of the blue and not many people knew that it was happening, it didn’t stop people from crowding the Camel and showing their support.

Another excellent thing about the evening was that I fell in love with one of openers Red City Radio and immediately bought their album “The Dangers of Standing Still” on the spot.

Once the Ataris took the stage, the stage was ready to lose it. They kicked off with “In This Diary” and the place went apeshit, for lack of a better term. A lot of the songs were from the Ataris’ major label album “So Long Astoria,” which of course everyone lost their minds over. But when they played a few songs from “Blue Skies, Broken Hearts,” those fans calmed down (they probably never even heard it) and instead got replaced by the hardcore old school Ataris fans who lost it even more. A fight even broke out during the middle of one song and Roe stopped playing and threw them out, telling them to “take that shit to a hardcore show and let everyone else have fun.”

Roe played a few new songs about having your heart broken and being true to yourself (normal topics for Ataris songs), an awesome Descendents cover and the always classic “San Dimas High School Football Rules,” where they brought some of their tourmates up on stage. An almost perfect night (except that girl moshing spilling her beer all over me). The only downside was that the set was way too short. I think everyone could have rocked out for another few hours.

SETLIST (from what I can remember)
In This Diary
My Hotel Year
Unopened Letter to the World
*New song*
Broken Promise Ring
So Long Astoria
Your Boyfriend Sucks
Coolidge (Descendents cover)
Takeoffs and Landings
San Dimas High School Football Rules
*Kris Roe solo song* don’t remember the name

Here’s a video of “San Dimas.” Sorry about the quality and the shakiness. A mosh pit managed to form around me as I was taping.